A flat, partisan, and pedestrian speech
Congressional Republicans are acting as if the 2012 campaign is continuing, so perhaps it isn’t surprising that the president followed suit. He gave a progressive speech that Democrats will like; he affirmed the importance of climate change and gay rights, defended by name the sanctity of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and made a pitch for infrastructure and education spending.
All worthy causes, but the speech lacked the unifying or transcendent ideas that could help Obama do much more than continue the Washington version of trench warfare during his second term. …
Missing from the speech was the first inaugural address’s perhaps naïve dream of uniting America. This second speech seemed to accept that America is divided and, as Obama put it, “progress does not compel us to settle centuries long debates about the role of government for all time.” He called out those who would “treat name-calling as reasoned debate”—I wonder who that could mean?—but Obama’s plan seemed to be to roll the negativists, rather than try any longer to reason with them.
Blowback
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That actually describes ALL of Obama’s speeches.
Of course, to the left, every one of his speeches is the latest Gettysburg Address.
TarheelBen on January 22, 2013 at 12:12 AM
TITO
Teleprompter in. Teleprompter out.
viking01 on January 22, 2013 at 12:28 AM
I guess he didn’t say “We the people” enough….
no, but seriously…I find this piece fascinating…
Can you please raise your hand if you want to feel “unified” or “united” with Obama on ANY OF THOSE WORTHY CAUSES!?
So here you have a conservative columnist thinking that you would entertain the idea of uniting, while you are sitting there screaming “HELL NO”.
Which one is it?…is there a possibility for unity? if not, then why should Obama waste his time trying to get it?
So, even he wanted to unify the parties, you’d spit in his face for being a traitor, and he is not an American anyway! He is not your president in the first place!
Who’s up for unity exactly?!!
Was the speech that good that the only criticism is a fictional alternative that a non starter for you anyway? <—– This is why the right has no credibility with independents like me (on policy or on politics). GRRRRR!! You ask for things that you know you will never agree to, AND I could not care less about your party games!…you just hate the guy, and that's the only thing that unifies the right. I'll pass.
Can.I.be.in.the.middle on January 22, 2013 at 1:17 AM
Ignatius is a leftie.
Schadenfreude on January 22, 2013 at 1:27 AM
Is Obama suffering from “Romnesia”?
OxyCon on January 22, 2013 at 2:33 AM
translation:
SSDD and the lsm is lovin’ it
I WON
cmsinaz on January 22, 2013 at 6:07 AM
I’m sorry but I couldn’t bare to watch almost any of the inauguration. It’s irrelevant of who was at the potium spitting out their statist lies, it could have been Romney and I would have felt the same. The truth is, the whole system is failing and the elite who make up the vast majority of both parties are criminals and they know it’s failing. The system is I fixable at this point, although they can prolong it. They throw our military might around in all sorts of places inorder to intimate other nations in keeping the dollar as the reserve currency. Once the world market drops the green back, the US govt knows the end is near.
MoreLiberty on January 22, 2013 at 6:18 AM
The debate about the role of the federal government was settled here when the U.S. Constitution was ratified. We the people decided and agreed that the federal government would have limited powers.
But some people say that the Founders were just a bunch of racist white men, and that the constitution they created was “flawed” because it failed to allow the federal government to enact the “progressive” vision of a big-government utopia.
So the “progressives” decided to use every dirty trick in the book to get around the constitution — from court-packing schemes, to massive electoral fraud, to just flat-out lying through their teeth to the public. Thus we reach the point where we have the nauseating spectacle we saw yesterday, in which a modern-day “progressive” places his hand on the Bible and swears an oath to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution that he’s been wiping his azz with for the past four years.
AZCoyote on January 22, 2013 at 7:41 AM
I caught that too. NONE of that is a “worthy” cause. Socialist Security is the worst retirement program ever with the worst rate of return, the average 20-40something would get a greater ROI depositing that tax in an ordinary bank account.
And besides, it’s all academic anyway. We are out of other people’s money and as soon as the rest of the world realizes it the dollar will be worthless. Simply put there aren’t enough productive people left to sustain the existing welfare state with it’s tens of trillions in unfunded liability much less the double down Obama wants to add to it. What there is now won’t survive another decade even if Obama puts the diminishing numbers of us who still work and pay taxes in chains and forces us to keep working while they take it all…
wildcat72 on January 22, 2013 at 7:45 AM
The speech was indeed a little flat. But it was nice to see Obama laying down a marker, suggesting that perhaps instead of the boring centrist we’ve endured for four years, maybe we’ll actually have a progressive in the White House.
urban elitist on January 22, 2013 at 7:58 AM
What progress, Scooter?
Lowering the work Force? Increasing the debt by $6 trillion? Creating the highest number of welfare recipients ever? Scuttling our military? Pretending terrorism has been defeated?
What a delusional narcissist homeboy.
fogw on January 22, 2013 at 8:05 AM
We get it, Dave -it’s those mean Republicans who are at fault for not “uniting” the country, not the class warrior in chief who is nothing but sweetness and light. Question for ya- If BO cares about the “sanctity” of Medicare, why did he steal $600 billion from it to fund ObamaCare?
Buy Danish on January 22, 2013 at 8:05 AM
To use that kind of rhetoric in an inauguration speech puts on record and for posterity what a small and petty man Obama truly is.
Fallon on January 22, 2013 at 8:19 AM
Obama boilerplate.
CycloneCDB on January 22, 2013 at 8:26 AM
In 2009, he had an absolute chance to unite a divided country. Instead, he said “I won” and spent the next four years railing at and dismissing 50% of the country. When someone campaigns on hatred for half the country, how is it their fault when that half doesn’t like him? Or did you forget the whole “They’re gonna put ya’ll back in chains!” kind of comments?
specialkayel on January 22, 2013 at 8:46 AM
We’re all Pedestrians now (thanks to the price of gas).
The Rogue Tomato on January 22, 2013 at 8:55 AM